Egypt called on to reveal fate of activist snatched from plane forced to land in Luxor
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday called for the Egyptian government to "immediately disclose" the whereabouts of an activist who disappeared after being taken off a plane in Luxor during an emergency landing.
Hossam Menoufi Mahmoud Sallam, 29, was on board Badr Airlines flight number J4690 from Khartoum to Istanbul on 12 January when it landed at Luxor Airport in southern Egypt.
Egyptian authorities have not confirmed the detention of Sallam, which the Istanbul-based rights group We Record called an "enforced disappearance" as he has been held incommunicado since.
On Monday, HRW said the authorities in Egypt needed to explain what had happened to Sallam and on what legal basis he had been taken.
They warned that, as an opposition activist, he was at serious risk of torture in Egyptian detention.
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“The Egyptian government should immediately disclose Hossam Menoufi’s whereabouts and allow his lawyer and family to see him,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
“Forcibly disappearing him is a serious crime.”
We Record said in a statement that they had received testimonies from five passengers on the same flight who said they did not hear any alarm sounds before the emergency landing.
When passengers disembarked from the plane, security staff at the airport requested the passports of Egyptian passengers only. Three passengers, including Sallam, were summoned by security, but only the 29-year-old was barred from boarding the replacement plane.
According to We Record, Sallam was initially detained for interrogation at Khartoum airport before boarding the flight on Wednesday.
Human rights crackdown
Arbitrary arrest and detention have been commonplace across Egypt since the 2013 coup that saw now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi overthrow the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood-backed government.
According to friends who spoke to HRW, Sallam had been a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and had sought refuge in Sudan since 2016 for fear of facing persecution.
The Brotherhood has been labelled a terrorist organisation in Egypt and supporters and alleged supporters have been arrested in their thousands since 2013.
Many journalists, lawyers and government critics have been arrested at Egyptian airports, whether upon their arrival or on their way out of the country, including human rights activist Patrick Zaki, journalist Gamaal al-Gamal, researcher Ismail Al-Iskandrani, journalist Ahmed Gamal Ziada, and human rights lawyer Ibrahim Metwally.
Sisi has overseen what HRW has described as the worst crackdown on human rights in the country's modern history.
In the group's World Report 2022, it said Egypt’s security forces have regularly acted with impunity, routinely conducting arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and torture of real or suspected political activists as well as ordinary citizens.
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